EP1361777A2 - Ein Kommunikationsprotokoll über Vorrichtungen hinweg - Google Patents

Ein Kommunikationsprotokoll über Vorrichtungen hinweg Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1361777A2
EP1361777A2 EP03010476A EP03010476A EP1361777A2 EP 1361777 A2 EP1361777 A2 EP 1361777A2 EP 03010476 A EP03010476 A EP 03010476A EP 03010476 A EP03010476 A EP 03010476A EP 1361777 A2 EP1361777 A2 EP 1361777A2
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EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
data
port
time period
network devices
sending
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Granted
Application number
EP03010476A
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English (en)
French (fr)
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EP1361777B1 (de
EP1361777A3 (de
Inventor
Shrjie Tzeng
Yi-Hsien Hao
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Broadcom Corp
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Broadcom Corp
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Publication of EP1361777A3 publication Critical patent/EP1361777A3/de
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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L12/00—Data switching networks
    • H04L12/66—Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways

Definitions

  • the field of the present invention is network devices that allow for data to be received and transmitted on a network. More specifically, the present invention is directed to network devices that may be chained together to provide higher port densities and to low-cost network devices.
  • the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for across-device communications. This across-device communication allows for the network devices to act as one switch assembly and allows for data to be received, examined and transmitted to the appropriate destinations.
  • a switch is defined as a network component that receives incoming data, stores the data temporarily, and sends the data back out another port.
  • the switch determines a destination address from the incoming data and sends the data to a port or ports associated with the destination address.
  • multiple network devices or switches may be tied together. For example, suppose a particular chip housing the switch has an 8 fast Ethernet ports and 2 gigabit ports. In order to provide a switch assembly with a greater port density, perhaps having 16+4, or 24+6 or 36+8 port system, two, three or four chips, respectively, must be interconnected to provide such functionality. As such, many switches also have at least one expansion port so that multiple chips can be chained together.
  • SerDes is a module that provides fast serial communication between two chips, where SerDes stands for serialization / deserialization.
  • SerDes stands for serialization / deserialization.
  • IPG inter packet gap
  • the network devices act as if it were transmitting a frame across chip continuously. Thus, even when there is no frame data to transmit across chip, the transmission signal will still be asserted and an idle pattern will be attached in the transmission field. This approach solves both the bandwidth and the minimum frame requirement associated with using SerDes in inter chip communications.
  • a method for communicating data between network devices is disclosed.
  • a transmission signal is sent over a port of one of the network devices, where the port is in communication with other network devices of the network devices.
  • a data frame is also sent over the port.
  • the transmission signal and the data frame are sent for a fixed byte time period and at least one idle pattern is included with the data frame when a time required to send all data present is less than the fixed byte time period.
  • the method can also include sending a transmission clock over the port wherein the transmission clock is used to determine when the fixed byte time period has elapsed.
  • the fixed byte time period may be a 512, 1024, or 2048 byte time period.
  • the method can also provide an effective bandwidth across the network devices of approximately 1 Gigabit per second.
  • the transmission signal and data frame may be sent through a Gigabit media independent interface or through a SerDes module that takes a signal from the Gigabit media independent interface and transfers the signal into a differential pair signal.
  • a network device capable of communicating data between other network devices.
  • the device includes at least one data port interface, supporting at least one data port transmitting and receiving data, at least one media access controller in communication with the plurality of data port interfaces and a SerDes module, that receives a signal from the at least one media access controller and transfers the signal into a differential pair signal.
  • the at least one media access controller is configured to employ a Gigabit media independent interface and the at least one media access controller and the SerDes module are configured to send a data frame for a fixed byte time period, where the data frame may include at least one idle pattern when a time required to send all data present is less than the fixed byte time period.
  • the plurality of data port interfaces may be a first set of data port interfaces and a second data port interfaces, where the first and second sets of data port interfaces support transmitting and receiving data at different rates.
  • the SerDes module may have four channels, with each of the four channels receives a digital signal and transfers the digital signal into a differential pair signal.
  • the network device may also have at least one of a packet buffer, an address management module and a serial management module.
  • Fig. 1 illustrates a functional block diagram of portions of a network switch according to one embodiment of the present invention
  • Fig. 2(a) illustrates a functional block diagram of the general Gigabit Media Access Controller (GMAC) and Fig. 2(b) illustrates a functional block diagram of the SerDes GMAC;
  • GMAC General Gigabit Media Access Controller
  • Fig. 3 illustrates an embodiment of a 24+6 system using three switches chained together
  • Fig. 4 illustrates a functional block diagram of a SerDes module
  • Fig. 5 illustrates the timing associated with the standard Gigabit Media Independent Interface (GMII).
  • Fig. 6 illustrates the timing associated with a Gigabit Media Independent Interface (GMII) according to one embodiment of the present invention.
  • GMII Gigabit Media Independent Interface
  • an 8+2 switch i.e. having 8 fast Ethernet ports and 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports, has the capacity to be connected to other similar switches.
  • a functional block diagram illustrating some aspects of such a switch is provided in Fig. 1.
  • Packet data can be received or transmitted through the 10/100 transceiver 107 connected to the 10/100 Media Access Controller (MAC) 106 in the case of the 8 fast Ethernet ports and through the 10/100/1000 Physical Layer (PHY) 108 and the Gigabit Media Access Controller (GMAC)/MAC 101 modules in the case of the 2 gigabit Ethernet ports.
  • the SerDes module 109 has its own SerDes GMAC 102 that facilitates communication through the SerDes module.
  • Fig. 2(a) illustrates the general GMAC 101, having a transmit MAC and a receive MAC that communication with the physical layer 108.
  • the SerDes GMAC 102 has a similar general GMAC 301, having a transmit MAC 303 and a receive MAC 302.
  • the output of the transmit MAC is received by a module 305 that encodes data and sends the data to the SerDes module 109.
  • the SerDes module send data to a module 304 that decodes data and sends the data to the receive MAC 302.
  • the 8+2 switch can also have a packet buffer 103, an address management module 104, as well as a serial management module 105, all illustrated in Fig. 1. It should be understood that the present invention is not limited to such an 8+2 switch, but the use of such a switch is important because it is just such types of switches that are often combined to provide a switch assembly with greater utility and port density.
  • Such a switch also has one expansion port so that we can chain the switches together to make a 16+4, a 24+6 or 36+8 system.
  • Fig. 3 illustrates the chaining together of three switches or chips 200, 201 & 202, through their expansion ports to make a 24+6 system. Although the figure provides for such an interconnection through the illustrated ring structure, other interconnection schemes are also possible.
  • SerDes is a module that provides fast serial communication between two chips.
  • the general CMOS standard cell has difficulty driving a signal at speeds higher than 166Mhz and usually has a very limited transmission distance. Because of the Digital Signal Processor (DSP) and analogy circuit design inside the Serdes module, it can drive signals across chips via PCB for long distances at 1 Gigabit per second.
  • DSP Digital Signal Processor
  • a 1 Gigabit quad SerDes module is the most cost efficient solution.
  • Fig. 4 provides a block diagram for SerDes module, according to one embodiment of the present invention.
  • the SerDes module illustrated provides for four channels that send and receive data through the GMII interface and shuttle that data to and from the analog channels.
  • the SerDes module takes 125Mhz, 16 bit GMII interface signal and transfers the signal to 1 Gigabit per second differential pair signal. In order to provide the needed 2.2 Gigabit per second throughput, up to three 1 Gigabit per second SerDes channels must be used.
  • the GMII interface is a standard way for Gigabit MAC to interconnect with Gigabit PHY, and includes both transmit and receive sides.
  • the major related signals are tx_en, txd[7:0] and txclk, i.e transmission enable, transmission data and transmission clock.
  • the major related signals are rx_dv, rxd[7:0] and rxclk, relating to the enable, transmission and clock on the receiving side.
  • the GMII interface is provided in the IEEE802.3 standard and all specific details of the interface need not be restated herein.
  • txen is asserted when transmitting a frame. Together with txen, a Start of Delimiter Frame (SDF), as a identifier for the beginning of transmitting a frame, is transmitted. Then, the Destination MAC address (DA), followed by the Source MAC address (SA), is sent and then the data fields are sent. At the end of the frame, a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) is attached to detect any data corruption. After that, it is necessary to wait for a 96bit time before the next frame can be transmitted, to comply with the standard.
  • This Inter Packet Gap IPG is necessary because the interface is connecting to a shared medium. Additionally, in full duplex, the internal First-In, First-Out (FIFO) of the PHY will be subject to jitter if the time of transmission is not limited.
  • three SerDes channels are used as a layer 1 device to transmit a frame across the devices.
  • the minimum frame size on expansion port of the individual switches is 64byte. Since the frame on the expansion port has to be divided into three channels for such an embodiment, it will make the minimum frame side on the SerDes channel be 64/3 bytes. However, this violates the GMII standard, where the GMII standard requires 64 byte as the minimum frame side, and the SerDes module can not function properly under this situation.
  • a txen is asserted for a fixed period of time.
  • the default period of asserting txen can be 1024 byte time, especially for the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 3. It can also be set as a 512 byte time or a 2048 byte time.
  • the only time txen is not asserted is after the fixed period of time of txen.
  • the above-discussed configuration of the invention is, in one embodiment, embodied on a semiconductor substrate, such as silicon, with appropriate semiconductor manufacturing techniques and based upon a circuit layout which would, based upon the embodiments discussed above, be apparent to those skilled in the art.
  • a person of skill in the art with respect to semiconductor design and manufacturing would be able to implement the various modules, interfaces, and components, etc. of the present invention onto a single semiconductor substrate, based upon the architectural description discussed above. It would also be within the scope of the invention to implement the disclosed elements of the invention in discrete electronic components, thereby taking advantage of the functional aspects of the invention without maximizing the advantages through the use of a single semiconductor substrate.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Communication Control (AREA)
  • Data Exchanges In Wide-Area Networks (AREA)
  • Time-Division Multiplex Systems (AREA)
EP03010476A 2002-05-09 2003-05-09 Ein synchrones Kommunikationsprotokoll für asynchrone Vorrichtungen Expired - Fee Related EP1361777B1 (de)

Applications Claiming Priority (4)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US37866702P 2002-05-09 2002-05-09
US378667P 2002-05-09
US163361 2002-06-07
US10/163,361 US8190766B2 (en) 2002-05-09 2002-06-07 Across-device communication protocol

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP1361777A2 true EP1361777A2 (de) 2003-11-12
EP1361777A3 EP1361777A3 (de) 2004-01-02
EP1361777B1 EP1361777B1 (de) 2006-07-19

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EP03010476A Expired - Fee Related EP1361777B1 (de) 2002-05-09 2003-05-09 Ein synchrones Kommunikationsprotokoll für asynchrone Vorrichtungen

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US (1) US8190766B2 (de)
EP (1) EP1361777B1 (de)
DE (1) DE60306841T2 (de)

Families Citing this family (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2004023731A1 (en) 2002-09-06 2004-03-18 Infineon Technologies Ag Configurable fast ethernet and gigabit ethernet data port
TW200845686A (en) * 2007-05-04 2008-11-16 Realtek Semiconductor Corp Network device and transmission method thereof
TWI530137B (zh) * 2010-11-03 2016-04-11 愛特梅爾公司 用於在一無線網路節點間傳輸資料之收發器及方法
DE102010050118B4 (de) * 2010-11-03 2018-03-22 Atmel Corp. Sende-Empfangs-Vorrichtung und Verfahren zur Übertragung von Daten zwischen Knoten eines Funknetzes
CN102447639B (zh) * 2012-01-17 2016-03-09 华为技术有限公司 一种策略路由方法及装置
DE102014200101A1 (de) * 2014-01-08 2015-07-09 Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft Switch-Anschlussvorrichtung für ein Kraftfahrzeug-Kommunikationsnetzwerk

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Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
EP1361777B1 (de) 2006-07-19
DE60306841T2 (de) 2007-02-22
DE60306841D1 (de) 2006-08-31
EP1361777A3 (de) 2004-01-02
US20030212815A1 (en) 2003-11-13
US8190766B2 (en) 2012-05-29

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